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Brown cashes in

• Brian Taylor
• 21 Mar 07, 02:29 PM

It was a Budget for an election, certainly, but not the one David Cameron thinks.

He suggested that the chancellor was cutting the basic rate of income tax in order to secure victory in the Labour leadership election. Maybe so, maybe so. But I suspect he had an eye upon an earlier contest, that for Holyrood.
Certainly, that was the view of Labour MSPs in the Holyrood canteen immediately after the budget.

(Chicken kiev the favourite choice. Rather toothsome, thanks for asking.)

As they chewed, they were already framing their local leaflets. 鈥淲ith Labour: 2p off income tax. With the SNP, 3p added on.鈥� Well, up to a point, Lord Copper. Gordon Brown has also ditched the 10p starting rate of income tax which rather takes the edge off the cut in the basic rate. And, of course, the SNP鈥檚 planned 3p Local Income Tax replaces the unpopular Council Tax, which they鈥檇 scrap.

鈥淒etails, Brian, details鈥�, said one particularly ebullient Labour MSP. Nationalist members seemed notably quieter, heading back to their computer screens to scan the small print for snags.

Mr Brown seemed determined to forestall them, sustaining the freeze on whisky duty and even deferring a hike in fuel tax until October, safely after the Holyrood contest. In terms of cash consequentials, the executive will get around 拢900,000 extra now - a decidedly limited sum. Such largesse as there is comes later in the next spending round from 2008 to 2011.

Wonder who鈥檒l be in power to dole that out in Scotland?